A Walk in the Shadows

Lee's After Action Report - Out in the Cold

Operation: End Game

After the infiltration of the Ring and the capture of Hound and D, we returned to our safehouse. It was one of the better ones that Quinn had come up with, almost up to my standards for digital extrusion. It was a small cottage in an open field, located a bit outside of London. Good lines of sight, a soundproof basement, and due to a anomaly in orbital patterns, just a sliver between areas of satellite coverage. Fairly close to ideal actually. Even DuBois seemed to approve of the choice.

We arrived with our captives in tow, and DuBois broke out his chemistry set and began interrogating the pair, separately of course. For all his faults, Felix knows his techniques. We got Holmwood to explain to us the current operational scope and mandate for Edom. As we expected, they were once again in contact with Dracula, supposedly to assist with the Islamic threat of terrorism today, but with a real agenda of getting blood samples from the vampire in order to design their own version of a vampire. One with the powers derived from Dracula and the bacterium that powered him, but severed from his communication and control capabilities.

We questioned him about the three serums we had recovered from the Ring (blue, gold, and clear), but although he knew the operational plan to build super-soldier/vampires, he did not have the technical knowledge we sought.

Holmwood further explained that Edom’s results with genetically engineering Dracula’s blood had been hampered by not having “fresh” samples, which the vampire was seemingly loathe to provide when previously asked, so they were going off old blood stains that could be traced back to Dracula. Their efforts had paid off in the form of Nikolai Limrovich and two others, both of which were dead in the field after demonstrating poor emotional choices (i.e. rage) that led to their demise. I guess in a sense you can say the same thing happened to “Bucky,” but he seemed more in control than the others that Holmwood mentioned.

We moved on to Hound, which presented me with an issue considering our previous correspondence. She stayed quiet, at least at the time, and was able to give us further details on the serums we had found. The blue serum, as we knew already, was a working solution for an Edom Supersoldier/Vampire like “Bucky.” The gold serum was an experimental enhanced version of the blue formula, but had not been extensively tested yet. Hound was not familiar with the clear serum (which DuBois later identified as a compound with silver nitrate and apitoxin (honeybee venom), that seemed to be particulary efficacious against the telluric bacterium. Though toxic and likely physically damaging, it appeared to be a quick “anti-vampire bite” solution.

It was at this point when everything went to hell.

Hound asked me point blank, “Are you going to do anything about this?”

DuBois immediately was on the offensive, pulling his piece and advising Oliver to do the same. The old man moved to flank me, as I tried to talk some sense into Felix, but my words fell on deaf ears.

Something was not right about all of this.

But I had no choice, so I made my move as both of them tried to restrain me. I had my trusty collapsable baton with me, and easily put some distance between us, but Felix was out for blood with his gun. I tucked and rolled out the door and up the steps, hitting the panic button on my phone. Hopefully, Perse had gotten my message earlier and was waiting outside.

And she was there! Both of the my partners were now throwing lead my way as she pulled up on her motorcycle and we made to split.

Have I mentioned that DuBoix is a fucking good shot?

We lost our tire and went into the dirt. I hear shouting and gunfire and the next thing I know I see Quinn driving a car right into me. I dove but he still caught me and sent me flying again. Went I came around, the fight was still ongoing, but knowing that Perse could handle herself ( as well as the fact the boys didn’t realize it was her), I made my way back into the safehouse, freed Hound and “D” and cut my losses.

I don’t think that freeing “D” was the best choice, but I had to get some trust back from Hound, especially after the violent turn of events from my former teammates.

We made our way back to town, “D” leaving us on the underground, and we made our way to one of Hound’s safehouses. Now I had to figure out what was going on with my team. Clearly, Dracula was influencing one or both of them. As much as I hated to admit it, Edom was not the only problem here and not even the biggest one.

Luckily for me, no one thought to check on my surveillance feeds so I had direct access to all of their electronic devices, the entirety of London’s camera system, and much more, so I was able to eavesdrop on their conversations over the ensuing hours…

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So, they decided to destroy the Edom serums. But that didn’t stop what happened next.